


Four Centuries and Also Nineteen Years

by Marchling



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Clary Fray/Jace Wayland, Background Simon Lewis/Isabelle Lightwood, Bad Parent Maryse Lightwood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Alec Lightwood, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, Protective Jace Wayland, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marchling/pseuds/Marchling
Summary: Everyone has a fated soulmate. The one person created for you by the Angels. When your soulmate is born, their name is written across your wrist. Immortality complicates it a little, some warlocks wait a century for their One.Magnus Bane has waited for four hundred years.And then, finally, his soulmate is born. Alexander Lightwood. The Angels were playing a joke on him.The Clave has spent nineteen years keeping his Alexander from him but, with death on the line, everything is about to change.---The Silent Brothers couldn’t heal him. Their runes couldn’t heal him. The Clave refused to allow a warlock.Jace knew what he had to do.He squeezed Alec’s hand and leaned in close to his ear, “Hang on, Alec. Don’t you dare give up on me. I’m going to bring your Magnus and he’s going to fix this. Just hang on until I get back.”
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Isabelle Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 261
Kudos: 518





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a pre-series canon divergence with fated soulmates identified by a name on the wrist. No major warnings other than me playing fast and loose with canon. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

The battle was over and Magnus didn’t know which side had won.

Little fires raged around the ruined stretch of forest. Bodies of Shadowhunters and Downworlders alike littered the blood soaked ground. Magnus felt almost numb as he walked through the carnage past people he had known for decades. Even the sight of runed skin couldn’t rouse any emotion in him. They were his enemies and they hated him and all his brothers and sisters for something they couldn’t help… but they were so very young. Shadowhunters were a savage race to put these children on the battlefield like they did.

Magnus wanted nothing to do with them.

His hand went to press on his covered wrist, just for a few seconds before anyone saw the motion.

Everything he had ever dreamt of was finally happening and all those hopes and dreams only led him here. To this nightmare. To the Shadowhunter standing before him, grinning at him like this was all a grand game.

“Valentine.” Magnus acknowledged. He did not nod his head. He did not bow. He gave no ground.

Valentine Morgenstern studied him with open curiosity. “Magnus Bane, returned to New York at long last.”

And then he said nothing else. In that moment, Magnus knew and his heart sank.

He had returned to New York for only one reason. A reason that had been born just two weeks ago.

Magnus had sunk to his knees in shock and reverence as a name finally, _finally_ , began burning onto his skin. He had cradled his wrist in his hand as he wished to cradle the being that was made for him. The one person that he was meant to spend his eternity with. The person who would be born with his name across their skin.

After all the centuries of praying and crying and wishing, his soulmate was finally being born.

Magnus had despaired for years that the day would never come. He hadn’t been born with the soulmark on his skin that gave his soulmate’s name but that wasn’t unusual. It just meant that the one meant for him was younger than he was. Not uncommon at all. And so Magnus had waited patiently like his mother had instructed. Then when he was older and he fully understood his immortality, he knew the wait might be longer than what he had expected as a child. Some warlocks waited a century for the one they were meant for.

Magnus had waited over four hundred years.

Halfway through those lonely years, he had decided that no name was coming. He tried to harden his heart to the idea but that was a lie and he knew it deep down.

The tears that had streamed down his face as the name of his soulmate darkened on his skin proved it.

Magnus had scarcely been able to breathe.

_Alexander Lightwood_

All these centuries alone and the Angels were playing a joke on him. A cruel, cruel joke.

And still, Magnus transported his loft back to its original perch in the heart of New York that same hour.

He let people think he had come because of Valentine. He hadn’t really. Not at first, at least. Genocidal madmen cropped up every once and while. Magnus had dealt with more than his fair share. It was time for other warlocks to step forward and give their magic to stopping this one. The last time he had refused someone come begging for the legendary Magnus Bane’s help, Cat had told him he was letting himself wither and fade away. She said he needed to wake up.

He was awake now.

Now that he was in New York, he could not stay out of the conflict growing every day. He could not ignore his people’s cries. He could not ignore the look in Raphael’s eyes or the strain Cat was under. He could not ignore that there were even many Shadowhunters working against Valentine and dying for it.

And he could not let his soulmate grow up in a world where Valentine had won.

Their possibility at being together was already so small. A tiny sliver of a chance. If his One grew up being taught Valentine’s beliefs… that sliver whittled down to dust.

And so he stood here on this battlefield. He had fought.

When the last combatant fell dead and the two sides retreated to tend to their wounded and plan for another day, the summons had come. A simple fire message.

Magnus had been powerless to disobey. His heart was shattering into tiny pieces even as he prayed against all hope that Alexander’s mother had enough love for her baby and enough brains in her head to keep Magnus’ name hidden.

She had not. He knew it now without a shadow of a doubt. Valentine knew.

“You’re insane.” Magnus said hollowly.

“You’re _mine_.” Valentine answered. “The great Magnus Bane. With you, I’ve already won.”

Magnus stared back impassively. He could not condemn the entire Downworld just for his own happiness. Apparently that idea hadn’t even factored into Valentine’s mind.

The young man – so stupidly young for all the blood he had spilt – didn’t stop talking. He never did. “I suppose I don’t have to tell you that if I don’t make it out of this conversation alive then your poor little baby boy won’t make it ‘til morning.”

No, Valentine hadn’t needed to say that. It was the only reason that Magnus hadn’t obliterated him where he stood. His magic was depleted and his body was exhausted, but for ending Valentine Morgenstern Magnus would have drawn on any well of power he needed.

“Good,” Valentine sort of marveled at him, like _Magnus_ was all of his dreams come true. Not the name on his own skin or the child he had already fathered and lost. Certainly not the _parabatai_ he had already betrayed. _Magnus_.

Magnus merely stared at him. The game was already begun.

“You’ll do what I say.” Valentine breathed out, “Or your soulmate dies. I don’t care if he’s a baby or not. I have a lot of plans for you, Bane.”

Magnus shrugged, “If I feel like it.”

Valentine stared. “If you _feel like it?_ I hold your soulmate’s life in my hands. He’s a tiny thing, so I mean that literally.”

“And I don’t like you.” Magnus drawled back even though everything inside of him screamed at him to break this cretin to pieces.

_Play the game._

He had thrown Valentine off, he could tell. All races were reverent of their soulmates, Shadowhunters included, but the longevity of warlocks and Vampires displayed their devotion in ways that the mortal races couldn’t quite comprehend.

His little soulmate was so young, Magnus was sure that Valentine hadn’t had time to fully process all that might come from a Shadowhunter being fated for a warlock. He had probably immediately assumed that Magnus would just blindly follow whatever plan Valentine had for him. Anything to keep his long awaited love safe.

And oh, how Magnus wished that could be.

He couldn’t raze the earth for Valentine to keep Alexander some tenuous kind of safe.

Nor could he bring himself to condemn his soulmate with his own actions.

And so Magnus had to play this smart, walk the tightrope just right. He had plans on top of plans. Backups for as many eventualities as he could think of.

To move any of them forward, this meeting needed to happen. He had hoped Valentine didn’t know, that Alexander’s mother would keep Magnus’ name hidden, but if that hadn’t been able to happen then at least he could make this meeting worth something. One of his many plans had deployed the second he got the fire message.

Everything in him prayed that there was another mother out there who loved her unborn child more than she loved Valentine. He had been failed by Alexander’s mother but he still pinned so many of his hopes on Jocelyn Fairchild.

He would have liked to go to her on his own. To make her all the promises in the world if she, the only person who could without a domino effect of death, ended this. He could not. Valentine guarded her so jealously.

For this meeting, Valentine had brought all of his best people. For Magnus Bane, the table must be set perfectly.

That left the path to Jocelyn clear for Cat and Ragnor.

This _could_ all be over soon… but it might not be. Backup plans on top of backup plans.

Valentine’s leverage wasn’t so important if Magnus didn’t let himself show that he cared the way he did.

A smirk came over Valentine’s hateful features, “So then I’ll give the word. If you don’t care, then why would we keep him alive?”

“Because I would destroy you.” Magnus answered evenly, sort of as though he were bored.

“For something you don’t care about?” Valentine tried to sound like he was taunting Magnus’ inconsistencies but there was genuine confusion there.

Magnus shrugged elegantly, “He is mine. If you touch what is mine, I will make the earth tremble.”

An impasse.

If Magnus didn’t do what Valentine wanted, Valentine would hurt Alexander.

If Valentine hurt Alexander, Magnus would obliterate him.

It was, he prayed with everything in him, enough to keep his precious soulmate safe.

“Did you think you would come here and threaten my soulmate and have _me_ come to heel?” Magnus asked Valentine seriously. “I am no lovesick child, young one.”

And just like that the gleam of victory drained from Valentine’s eyes. No sanity rushed to replace it so Magnus knew Alexander still wasn’t safe, but nor was he _not_ safe.

Valentine was insane but he wasn’t stupid. He was _brilliant_.

He understood.

“I have guards on him at all times.” Valentine threatened.

Magnus knew he meant that in the sense of _if you try to go to him, they will kill him before you ever get close_.

“Good.” Magnus nodded approvingly, “That’s wise. If anything were to happen to him while he was under your protection, I would take that quite… _personally_.”

Valentine stared silently again.

“Do we have any other business to discuss?” Magnus asked him idly.

They did not.

**\---**

When Magnus made it back to his loft, Cat and Ragnor were waiting for him. When they told him that Jocelyn was already making her own plans to hide her unborn baby from Valentine after the death of their firstborn and would be his ally, Magnus nearly cried in relief.

**\---**

A week later, Valentine Morgenstern was dead. To anyone but a select few people, Jocelyn Fairchild was too. She was safely hidden away by Magnus and, when the time came, her baby would be as well.

That night Magnus marched into the New York Institute. Just to see Alexander, just to look at him with his own eyes. To set up a line of communication about his soulmate with his parents, as was customary when a fated pair was an adult and a child. Magnus didn’t think they would be happy or welcoming or that they would make any of it easy, but denying him access to his soulmate went against the Angels’ will.

Members of the Clave were waiting for him when he arrived.

Alexander wasn’t there, they said. His parents had relocated to another Institute. Which one? Oh, they weren’t sure. He was safe though. Incredibly safe.

Would Magnus like a picture?

When news came, they would inform him.

Also, could he reinforce the Institute warding while he was there? The previous High Warlock was so lacking.

That was when Magnus knew the game wasn’t over yet.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the amazing support for the first chapter, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!!

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

_\- Nineteen Years Later -_

Magnus surveyed the writhing crowd of Pandemonium with a cool eye.

Business was thriving but then any business that Magnus touched usually did. Clubs were easy. Pandemonium had existed in dozens of cities in dozens of decades. Right now it was New York because Magnus was bound to it for a home base but he had no doubt that someday he would close these doors and eventually open them again somewhere else. Maybe Athens next time.

His platform was covered in bodies. He didn’t care what they looked like. Men or women or something in between. Dryads, werewolves, vampires. Willowy and slender, stocky and strong, curvaceous and lush. Dark skin, green skin, skin leeched of all color.

The only thing he couldn’t stand to have touch him was a pale young man with dark hair.

It reminded him of the one person he wanted and couldn’t have. The person he had waited four centuries and also nineteen years for.

His Alexander.

The Clave hadn’t deigned to give him a picture in nearly a decade. Not once Alexander got old enough that he could be recognized more easily.

They were fools if they thought they were his only avenue of information.

They were clever, he gave them that. Not keeping Alexander in New York was wise. Not keeping him anywhere at all was even wiser.

Instead, Alexander constantly lived in the wind. Magnus knew he had a sister, Isabelle, and two brothers. One fostered, Jace and the other still only a child, Max. Max was apparently deemed young enough and removed enough to stay in a well guarded Academy. Magnus didn’t write off the idea of using Max but with Alexander still so young himself it seemed premature.

The elder three siblings were rotated out to Institutes across the world with no rhyme or reason to timing or location. Once Magnus got a lock on Alexander in the London Institute he was gone. Three weeks later he got wind of him in Hong Kong. Then afterwards he would hear from someone that in between London and Hong Kong he was in Reykjavik.

In the beginning, when Alexander was just an infant, it had only been a close circle of friends that were aware of him and what the Clave was doing. As Alexander grew, people started talking. Now warlocks the world over knew of him and Magnus got the bulk of his information about his boy from them, not the measly little tidbits the Clave doled out like treats to a dog doing good work.

Usually he was given the reports after the fact. Someone who saw his soulmate for only a moment before he was gone again.

Only four times in Alexander’s life did someone get word to Magnus in enough time for him to try to get to his soulmate’s side quickly enough to actually see him.

The first time he had been able to glimpse Alexander as he was ushered into the Copenhagen Institute. Alexander had been fourteen and _already_ going on missions for the Clave.

The second time Magnus had been too late. That had been the bitterest defeat. It had only been four months after the first time and he had still been so drunk on seeing Alexander in the flesh that he had been nearly broken to not get another chance.

The third time was when Alexander was sixteen. He had been in the courtyard of the Riga Institute for some sort of ceremony that the Clave was attending. The entire place had been swarming with security and high ranking Clave officials. Even the Consul was in attendance. Though it broke his heart, he decided against making a move. There was enough security in place that Alexander would likely be whisked away and Magnus would have overplayed his hand. Lulling them into a false sense of security made more sense, he told himself.

Instead, he had camped out glamoured on the rooftop of an adjacent building and just watched. Picking Alexander out of the crowd was easy. Even if Magnus hadn’t spent hours pouring over every picture he received of his soulmate, he felt like he would have known the boy anywhere. He watched with loving eyes as Alexander joked with his siblings, as he listened to the speeches stoically, as he just _existed_.

When the event ended and Alexander had gone inside, Magnus had been more in love than ever. As in love as someone who had never spoken to the object of his affections could be.

The fourth time was when Alexander was seventeen. Magnus was again too late. He had been angry…

But he would have been much angrier if he would have known that no opportunity was coming again in at least the next two years.

The familiar anger was nearly as potent and incandescent as it had been two year ago. The air crackled with the sudden swell of magic bleeding off from his skin. Some people noticed and leaned away. Others knew him better and were used to it.

“Magnus.”

His eyes darted to the side, the only part of him that moved. He was angry enough that it took him a few extra seconds to place the man in front of him with his name rather than what level threat he was.

“Asa,” Magnus inclined his head and waved his hand towards the ever attentive bartender, “What a surprise.”

One of his servers appeared at Asa’s elbow in seconds and while the two of them made quick small talk over his order, Magnus studied his old friend.

They hadn’t seen each other in nearly thirty years, but that wasn’t so strange for Magnus. He wasn’t partying quite like he used to, reigning over Pandemonium aside. These weren’t _real_ warlock parties. Those Magnus didn’t have the stomach for. His people were helping him but they also knew what was going on and he could feel their pity.

Cat’s birthday was coming up rapidly. Enough of a milestone that Magnus couldn’t let it go uncelebrated. The party was tomorrow and he had been planning it for nearly six weeks. Getting back into the swing of party planning was almost strange. He wanted to celebrate for his dearest friend but he also didn’t feel that there was anything _to_ celebrate until he had Alexander in his arms.

Asa hadn’t been invited, they weren’t particularly close, but while he was here Magnus would extend the invitation. He could always be counted on for brooding handsomely in the corner of any party. Eye candy that Cat would appreciate, even if he wasn’t much of a conversationalist. He was High Warlock of New Orleans and had been for nearly fifty years. In that time, he hadn’t much left Louisiana.

“What brings you to my city?” Magnus asked a bit more formally than he would have ordinarily. Asa had a tensed look around his eyes, more so than usual. This wasn’t a social call.

The younger warlock leaned in close, “Do you have a moment? I have news of your soulmate.”

Magnus went from lounging to halfway across the platform before all the words were even out of Asa’s mouth. There was no hesitation, nothing was more important than whatever Asa had come to tell him.

They didn’t work their way through the crowd. Magnus merely walked and the crowd parted in front of him. What should have been ten minutes of fighting through writhing bodies to get to the other side of the room took barely a moment. Magnus was motivated.

From there they went down an employees only access hall and up his private staircase into his office above the dance floor. The second the door was shut behind them, Asa handed him his phone.

A picture, then. A beautiful, stunning photo of his Alexander _during the day_.

So rarely did such bright images come to him. Alexander was a Shadowhunter, out during the night far more than the day. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t cherish the images he received where his boy was little more than a slightly less black smudge in a pitch black alley, more an outline than anything else, because he did.

But this? This was the most beautiful picture he had seen of Alexander in over two years.

Magnus drank in every detail revealed to him. His One was still growing up, still coming into his own. The difference between twenty-eight and twenty-nine wasn’t so severe. The difference between eighteen and nineteen _was_. It was in the next couple of years that his boy would finally be fully grown, stabilizing how he looked and making it that much easier for the world’s warlocks to track him.

His dark hair was tousled, some of it hanging in over his forehead. Magnus’ fingers ached to brush the curls back. He could practically feel each strand of hair weaving through his fingers.

His brows were strong and perfectly curved. He would, Magnus had no doubt, be able to say so much with just the arching of one. There was a new scar through the left brow, not severe but clearly disrupting it. An injury? He hated any evidence that Alexander was ever injured in any way at all. He knew that was the life of a Shadowhunter but making his heart accept it was an impossibility.

The light played off his hazel eyes, making them glow. The shot was fairly straight on, giving Magnus the best view of them he’d had in years.

His eyes traced over his cheekbones, his gorgeous lips, the delicious rune adorning the side of his neck. All of it perfection. And his _height_ , Alexander was getting so tall. He had a good two inches on his brother now and who knew if he was even done growing?

The best thing of all was that he was _smiling_.

He was flanked on either side by his siblings and his sister was smirking up at him as though she had just said something outrageous. Though Alexander was smiling, there was an ever so faint blush warming his cheeks. Magnus had so few pictures of him that weren’t taken during a battle, especially since the Clave had stopped giving him new pictures.

His eyes burned as he finally pulled them away to look up at Asa, “Thank you.”

The warlock, always so dour and dark, favored Magnus with a small smile in return, “I am happy to deliver this to you, Magnus.”

Magnus looked back down at the picture, cradling Asa’s phone as if it were Alexander himself. “You took this?”

“No,” Asa shook his head in Magnus’ periphery, “One of my warlocks did but as the High Warlock of New Orleans, I wanted to bring this to you myself.”

New Orleans. In the country again, though not particularly close to New York. He was in the United States less than any other country, although that had always struck Magnus as dumb. Portals existed and he knew the Clave was aware of that.

“Did they see the picture being taken?” Magnus asked him.

Asa shook his head quickly, “No, she was very quick. She tracked them only long enough to determine his identity and then took the picture and left.”

Which meant there was a very good chance that no one was aware that Alexander had been spotted.

Which meant that he wasn’t likely to be moved so immediately.

Which meant that Magnus could go to New Orleans and Alexander would still be there.

His heart was pounding.

Asa gently reached out and pulled the phone out of his grasp, “Let me send it to you.” He said quietly. Then he looked down at his phone and took an excessive amount of time to forward the picture to Magnus.

It was decorum and Magnus was well aware of it. He was being kind, giving Magnus a moment to come to grips with the opportunity he was being given.

Alexander and his siblings were warded to the gills against any and all tracking. No fire messages could reach him. No scrying spells affected him. Nothing did, and oh how Magnus had tried. He had tried for _years_. He wasn’t sure what favors the Clave had called in, what warlock had unknowingly taken the job, what runes were being used in conjunction with those spells – the result was that there was a wall around Alexander that left Magnus unable to find him through magical means.

He had spent much of Alexander’s toddler years attempting to break down that wall or find a way around it, all to no success.

He had fantasized about this opportunity a thousand times. Each year he needed to reassess what his answer would be.

Go to Alexander?

Or stay away?

It wasn’t that simple.

Alexander was old enough now that he must know what having the name Magnus Bane on his wrist meant. He was also now a legal adult. He could choose when before he couldn’t have disobeyed his parents, technically speaking. Of course Magnus would have been willing to spirit him away if he asked but that was a big decision. His boy had an entire life and family that had nothing to do with Magnus and he never, _never,_ wanted to put him in a position where he had to choose between them. Especially with siblings younger than him that were the only constant in his world – he never wanted to ask Alexander to choose him and lose them.

He might not choose Magnus. Or maybe he _would_ choose to walk away and he would come to regret it. The healthiest way forward was by letting _them_ happen in a way that meant Alexander didn’t have to completely cut himself off from his own people to be with Magnus.

So step one, he had to wait until Alexander could legally make the choice and was old enough to understand what that choice entailed.

That had stayed his hand in the past. Now, at nineteen years old, it no longer mattered as much.

It was a point in favor of going to Alexander.

A point against was what lies the Clave might have been feeding Alexander all these years. What if his boy believed terrible things about Magnus? What if he thought that Magnus didn’t care for him? The Clave weren’t likely to have told Alexander that his soulmate would gladly worship him if only given the chance.

This meant that Magnus needed to make their first meeting count.

If he moved too quickly, too rashly, he could ruin everything. In his haste, he might frighten Alexander. The Clave would get wind of Magnus finding him and they would move him, especially if Alexander didn’t fight for being with Magnus which was unlikely considering they had never met before.

Any show of aggression on his part might be playing into whatever lies the Clave had told about him.

This needed to be carefully planned.

It might even need to be let go.

That Alexander was both in the US and out during the day was monumental. The Clave were getting cocky or foolish or both. If he didn’t know better, he might have even thought that they were growing lax after all these years.

If Magnus went to Alexander and failed, that would all be ruined in an instant. Things would go back to how they had been for so long.

Perhaps… his heart broke even thinking it… perhaps it would be better if he did nothing at all. If he didn’t let on that he had warlocks all over the world looking for his boy.

“Please keep an eye out for him.” Magnus said quietly as he stared at the wall behind Asa. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, the beautiful picture now in his possession. “I have plans to make, but please watch for him and tell me if anything changes.”

Asa needed no further explanation. No warlock in the world envied him.

“I will, Magnus. I promise.”

**\---**

The fire messages came constantly.

At this point the Clave couldn’t even pretend that the things they asked him for were within the purview of the High Warlock of Brooklyn’s job. His rates were rock bottom, his time was never respected, they even had the gall to send him to other Institutes to do ward work if the High Warlock in that city tried to charge “too much”.

Some things Magnus refused. It was Valentine all over again. Walk the tightrope, play the game.

Pray he got his soulmate at the end of it.

Hope dwindled. His disgust for the Clave rose ever higher. Once he hadn’t thought such a thing was possible, now he knew better. He expected that hatred to grow year by year.

How many more years must he wait for Alexander?

As this newest summons to the New York Institute demanded his immediate presence, Magnus’ thoughts turned again to the knowledge that Alexander was in New Orleans. He pulled his phone from his pocket for the five hundredth time since Asa had sent him the picture. Once again, he opened it with shaking hands and a pounding heart.

He could go.

He could end this stalemate.

His mind swirled with the possibilities.

Perhaps he could just go to the city and walk around late at night glamoured until he stumbled on the Lightwoods doing their patrol. His imagination had fleshed it out hours ago. Alexander, in some alleyway, Magnus ending his glamour and standing under a streetlamp. Just standing. Just offering. His One could come to him or not. Could say something or walk away. At least then he would _know_. At least then he would have some sort of idea of what Alexander thought of him so he could figure out how to proceed.

Other choices prodded at him. Getting Asa’s help to sneak into the Institute and find Alexander himself, for instance. He could see that just as clearly. Finding Alexander’s room, waiting in it and begging for a few moments to speak to him. It was riskier, foolishly risky, but it was even more direct. It meant a conversation was sure to happen. Too forceful, his mind knew, but he still dreamt of it.

None of those daydreams could be safely fallen into now. Not when the Clave was demanding him again. The fire message was written as dismissively as it ever was. Dripping with disrespect. They held his soulmate over his head _and they relished in it_.

Sometimes, Magnus wondered what the Angels thought of it all.

With a weariness that had sunk into his soul, Magnus put his phone back into his pocket and stood. Tonight was not the night. He had learned once before – for Alexander, he needed plans on top of plans and right now, he had none to offer. Making the wrong move, a rash move, could ruin everything.

Which meant that, yet again, he had to go and play the Clave’s bitch just to hope for a scrap of information about Alexander and attempt to keep relations between them cordial enough to keep him safe.

Magnus went to the mirror to take a moment to refresh the concealer around his eyes. He never wanted to look affected by them. Never would he allow them to see a moment’s weakness or despair.

And then he opened the portal, the same as he did week after week.

When he stepped out into the New York Institute, no one really batted an eye. He was here so often, it hardly mattered to them anymore.

A dark haired man stood waiting. His least favorite escort.

“My dear Raj,” Magnus said with a cool smile, “I hope you’re well?”

Raj, absolute imbecile that he was, only rolled his eyes. “The envoy from the Clave will be here soon. You’re to wait here until they arrive.”

Other than occasionally stopping him at the door, Magnus never dealt with the Shadowhunters within the Institute directly. Or at least, not without a member of the Clave present. Only a select few within it knew about their unique situation and they very much wanted to keep it that way.

They liked to tell him that it was for Alexander’s protection and his reputation. That Magnus would ruin his life was something they liked to tell him frequently.

He knew the truth though.

Though the current regime of Shadowhunters weren’t as overtly anti-Downworld as Valentine had been, they weren’t much better.

The Angels’ made the matches… So what did it say that they had purposefully matched a Nephilim, one of their own special race, with someone with demon blood?

The Clave was afraid, pure and simple. They were afraid of what message that might send. They were afraid of what the repercussions would be for the entire Shadow World if people decided to take Magnus and Alexander as a sign from the Angels that unity and cooperation between their races was their wish.

That would be bad enough for the Clave, _would_ have been bad enough nineteen years ago, but that they had been actively keeping fated soulmates apart when it went against the Angels’ will? Matches were never to be questioned yet here they were, blocking Magnus from his One _for nearly two decades_ and using him while they did it. They were certainly having fun with a warlock such as him at their beck and call but that was only a bonus.

Depending on how it was all revealed, all of these people here in this Institute who saw him year after year and did nothing to figure out why or help – they all might be deem complicit in going against the Angels.

They were desperate to keep it all a secret. To contain this impossibility before it changed _everything._

Magnus was sworn to secrecy. Tell no one.

And he hadn’t, really. He’d told Catarina and Ragnor before the Clave had forced his promise. _They_ told everyone else. That was hardly on him.

From behind Raj’s back, Magnus saw his babysitter for today and fought to keep the disgust from his face. Victor Aldertree was a prejudiced bastard, which was bad enough, but he also had the gall to think he was some noble and distinguished hero and that was its own kind of grating.

“Mr. Bane,” Aldertree drawled as he leveled up with Raj, “Thank you for arriving so promptly.”

As if he ever did anything else. Sometimes they summoned him at six in the morning, just to test the _hedonist Magnus Bane_. He showed up bright eyed and, to their eye, perfectly well-rested.

Honestly, he barely slept anymore. Not because of them. Because of Alexander. Because he missed him, though he did not yet know him. Because he was afraid for him. Because he was so desperately lonely without him.

“My pleasure.” Magnus said. The words were flat and without a smile. Respectful but utterly disdainful.

Aldertree’s smile didn’t falter. He knew.

“Thank you, Raj,” Aldertree dismissed him and Raj left without a single glance back at Magnus. He didn’t care.

With a flick of his fingers, Aldertree demanded Magnus follow him like he was a dog taught non-verbal commands. Magnus did it because he had to. His glared at the back of the man’s head.

Imagining his magic setting Aldertree aflame was comforting.

They headed down to the lower level. Judging by the smell emanating from the labs, they had something noxious for him to give his expertise on. _Lovely_.

Aldertree didn’t speak until they entered a room only inhabited by a shrouded figure on the slab. He shut the doors behind them and locked them with his stele. A soundless rune went up next, because they always did. In the beginning, when Magnus had actually gotten updates about Alexander, this used to thrill him. _Maybe today they would tell him something about his One. Maybe today he would receive a picture._

That had long since faded. Them holding up their end of this bargain and his hope both.

The odious Shadowhunter came and lifted the sheet back from the corpse and only Magnus’ long years kept him from making any sort of face as the smell that was released got even worse. Aldertree didn’t manage it, his nose wrinkling instantly. He managed to smooth the expression within a few seconds but any moment this man’s debonair airs were dropped was one that Magnus enjoyed.

“We found this Mundane dead a few hours ago.” Aldertree stated, then stopped. _Solve the mystery for us, warlock._ He didn’t need to explain why they had dragged Magnus here, they both knew why. 

The male Mundane staring up at Magnus with milky eyes looked a lot more than a few hours dead. That didn’t necessarily mean that he _was_ considering some demons though.

“Did your Shadowhunters even bother to research this themselves?” Magnus asked idly as he raised his hands over the corpse to scan it with his magic, “Or was that too much effort?”

Aldertree smirked, “Why bother? It’s so much more efficient this way.”

Magnus said nothing. He certainly wasn’t going to rise to the bait.

His focus went to the unfortunate fellow on the slab. He was grey and sunken, something green around his lips.

“Have you thought more about doing the right thing?” Aldertree asked quietly.

_Someday_ , Magnus thought, _maggots will be eating your flesh and I will be laughing at your pitiful memory._

There was water frozen in the man’s lungs, even though the room wasn’t cold enough for that and his body wasn’t either.

This was so simple. The answer was stunningly obvious and yet they wasted his time to come here instead of doing even the most cursory forensic examination. Magnus could give a high school aged Mundane with a strong stomach and a basic understanding of biology twenty minutes and a book of fairy tales and _they’d_ get it right, yet these Shadowhunters had become so lazy and complacent over the last nineteen years they didn’t even bother trying.

“You know,” Aldertree continued when Magnus said nothing, “This could all be over. You could make the Vow to stay away from him and we could be done with this. I’m sure the warlocks here can choose a new High Warlock and you can go back to living life the way you want to. Sex, drinking, parties… why keep wasting year after year on a boy who you’ll never actually know?”

_I will know him. I will. I will. You will not keep him from me forever._

This was their demand, ever since Alexander turned eighteen.

A magical vow, a binding compact – give Alexander up and promise to never speak to him or speak _of_ him or… The consequence changed as Magnus continued refusing. Sometimes it was his death, once it was Alexander’s. Magnus had quickly disabused them of _that_ but he had no doubts they were planning something noxious if he were to ever agree with their terms.

“A siren.” Magnus pronounced as he dropped his hands back to his sides. “A Northern variety, judging by the magically infused ice in his lungs. Impossible to tell which until you get a visual.”

Aldertree merely stared at him.

Magnus stared back.

He would not make a magical Vow to stay away from Alexander. He had told them so a year ago and would not speak any further on the matter.

“We all know you’re selfish, but sometimes it’s so incredibly stunning to me _how_ selfish you are that I can barely believe it.” Aldertree shook his head, “What do you truly think you can do for him that would be better than letting him go? He’s a Shadowhunter. You’re a warlock. Your union would be an aberration. It cannot be allowed. You’ll ruin his entire life. He’s a promising warrior with contacts around the globe, his career could be legendary if the taint of _you_ doesn’t ruin it. Let him go and end this farce, Bane.”

As if Alexander’s _career_ was what they were concerned about. Perhaps the Lightwood family was, they were old and proud after all, but the Clave didn’t give a damn. What about _their_ careers, maybe. What about their lives if this call came out?

He kept his voice and face flat, “Will that be all tonight?”

Aldertree scoffed, “You’re impossible.”

“I could say the same to you.” Magnus returned steadily.

They stared at each other a moment longer.

“Will that be all tonight?” He asked again.

They never kept him longer than they had to. Even they were aware that some sort of marathon badgering session was unwise to try to attempt on him. He might be trapped by them right now but he was still Magnus Bane and he was still a threat.

Aldertree broke first, like he always did.

It was the little victories that kept him going.

“That will be all tonight.” Aldertree answered before he turned and went to the door to unlock it.

They said nothing to each other once the risk of being overheard returned. There _wasn’t_ anything to say. If they weren’t demanding service and they weren’t giving him information about his soulmate, he didn’t want to hear their voices.

If he wasn’t doing their bidding or agreeing to cut ties with Alexander forever, they had no use for him.

Magnus would not give in…

But he feared what they would do if he continued to say no. How long would they hold to this plan?

And what was the plan after this one?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up we check in with the Lightwoods :) 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of the chapter!


	3. Chapter Two

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

“You’re starting to look like you’ve got a coke addiction you’re eating that many beignets, Iz.” Jace reached out and wiped a smear of powdered sugar from Izzy’s upper lip.

She just laughed, “You say that like you’re eating any less than me.”

“Everyone in this city is eating less of them than you,” Alec drawled from behind them. He was renewing the runes on his bow with a practiced hand in preparation for tonight’s hunt. Always on task, not like him and Izzy.

Though Alec wasn’t scolding them for losing focus, Jace still picked up his seraph blade and whetstone. He could tease Izzy and sharpen his blade at the same time, especially if Alec could do it and prep his bow and arrows.

Izzy shot a glare at their brother, “Just because sweets aren’t your thing doesn’t mean you get to make fun of me. _I_ wasn’t the one going to town on the barbeque in St. Louis last week, was I?”

Alec didn’t react but Jace could feel the little twinge of self-aware amusement that said he agreed with Izzy’s point through their bond.

That they had been in two American Institutes in a row was weird and sort of awesome. The Clave _never_ allowed it, all because Magnus Bane lived in New York. It seemed like a silly argument to them – the guy had _invented_ the portal after all – but it obviously didn’t to the Clave. They never dared ask anyone about it and definitely never let on that they cared where they went.

Except they did care. They cared a lot and not just because of Alec’s soulmate.

Anyone could live anywhere, but Simon Lewis sounded like a pretty American name to them. Izzy was convinced he was in the US or maybe the UK and this new stint in America had her charged up.

Simon Lewis, incidentally, also sounded like a pretty Mundane name.

Maryse didn’t talk about it, not like she talked about the name hidden under the leather cuff on Alec’s wrist, but Jace was pretty sure the three of them were a massive disappointment to her.

Alec with a powerful Warlock’s name written on his skin, the reason they moved around so much. The everlasting shame to the Lightwood family name.

Jace with the name of a supposedly dead girl. Clarissa Fairchild was listed as deceased in the Clave’s database, _at best_ he should have had her name on his wrist for just moments in the time between her birth and death but Jocelyn Morgenstern’s unborn baby Clarissa was supposed to have died with her mother before she was even born. Obviously that was a lie. Somewhere, Clarissa was in hiding, sort of like the three of them. Only his grandmother, Maryse, Robert, Alec and Izzy knew whose name he had and he meant to keep it that way. Until Jace could find her and protect her himself, Clarissa was safer ‘dead’.

After his parent’s deaths at the hands of Valentine’s people, his grandmother had decided to match him up with the other little boy being moved around the world for his own protection. It made looking for his One difficult but it was still the best decision his grandmother had ever made as far as he was concerned.

Izzy’s soulmate being a maybe a Mundane was actually the least complicated among them. Yeah, there was a good chance that they were going to blow some poor Mundane’s mind and break a few secrecy laws along the way but that seemed more than doable in comparison. Fun even, depending on Simon’s personality.

Max didn’t have his soulmark yet but here’s hoping he got a super respectable Shadowhunter who didn’t have any deep dark secrets or Maryse would lose her mind.

None of them had discussed it but he knew his _parabatai_ and their sister were both on edge in America. That they were even being _allowed_ here was major. They tended to get sent to Institutes that were experiencing higher than average demonic activity so they could help out but a lot of the time American Institutes were just sort of left to figure it out themselves without extra backup.

This was new. This was maybe the start of a turning point. 

“What are the stats for the demons tonight?” Izzy asked, shaking Jace out of his thoughts.

Alec answered, predictably, “Tantumvenens, they’re the size of mastiff dogs. They travel in packs of anywhere from five to twenty. Their bodies are extremely weak and brittle. Easy to incapacitate so we need to focus more on maiming in the initial attack. Once we have them all on the ground, we can go through and start killing them. They –”

Izzy arched an eyebrow, “They dragged us all the way here for something easy to wound? Okay, a pack of twenty would be a lot but still, this seems too easy.”

“All the strength they’ve got is in their jaws. They’ve got teeth that could rip your leg off in one bite.” Alec shot her a look for interrupting, “And they’re extremely venomous. Bites are almost always fatal. So incapacitate to start and then worry about killing them when we’re sure they can’t bite us.”

“That sounds more like it,” Izzy said with a pleased grin. “We’ll at least have some fun with it.”

Alec just sighed.

“Cheer up,” Jace knocked his arm into Alec’s, “Izzy’s right. This will be fun. After, maybe we can slip away and get something to eat. Pretty much every restaurant here is good _and_ has Izzy’s beloved beignets so we can’t go wrong.”

“They’re not going to let us out twice in a row.” Alec said a little sullenly.

Jace stepped closer and dropped his voice to an undertone, “No one but us saw that warlock taking a picture of you yesterday. They would have already moved us if they did.”

“We snuck out two nights ago and no one noticed.” Izzy pointed out quietly, “The Head here seems kind of lax. I’m surprised Mom even approved this Institute.”

They hadn’t seen their parents in nearly six months but damn if Maryse wasn’t an overarching presence in their lives every single day.

Alec just sighed and Jace knew why. His _parabatai_ might have been more than a little apprehensive about the possibility of actually meeting Magnus Bane but he still wanted to. They knew better than to believe everything the Clave told them. Magnus might have been everything they said he was – a possessive, hedonistic lothario who only wanted Alec for one thing and would ruin his life after he got it – or he might not have been. They would never find out being punted across the globe though.

All three of them found the oppressive rules they lived under frustrating but to Alec, they were his fault. If it weren’t for him, they could have stayed in New York and Izzy would have already met her soulmate and Alec would have already been on his way to becoming the youngest Head of Institute ever and Jace would have been able to do some decent research on Clarissa without setting every alarm the Clave had off.

Instead, they were stuck being moved constantly to keep Alec away from his warlock soulmate. And they weren’t doing the world’s greatest job either. Warlocks on every continent noticed them, which meant that Bane was keeping tabs on Alec.

Jace was never sure how he felt about that.

It was just another thing to fuel his desire to be the absolute best fighter he could be. He had Clarissa to protect, wherever she was and however she came into his life eventually. He had Izzy, Alec and Max to protect too, his _parabatai_ most of all. Who knew what Bane would do if he and Alec met? Hopefully only nice things but Jace had read and heard enough stories about him to know it wasn’t a given, even if he took out all of the horror stories his grandmother, Maryse and various other people in the Clave told them.

At least with Clarissa, even though her situation was definitely odd, he knew that he had about the same chance with her as any fated pair did. Nearly everyone ended up with their soulmate, although there were the rare pair that didn’t work out.

But Alec?

How could he know if a warlock actually wanted a Shadowhunter?

He _couldn’t,_ not until he actually spoke to Bane and to do that he had to break every rule and law that had been hammered into his head. That even stayed Izzy’s hand. What if they reached out to Bane and he _didn’t_ want Alec? What if the Clave found out? All of their communications were monitored. All of their movements were monitored. They could _maybe_ try and speak to one of those warlocks that tracked them but the Clave wasn’t above having them tailed. They had done it before and the three of them knew they would again.

Jace didn’t want to know what would happen if the Clave caught Alec trying to reach out to his soulmate. All anyone had ever said was vague doom and gloom and, once, his grandmother had merely said _his entire life is forfeit_. What did that mean? Did she mean that they thought Bane would actually physically hurt him? Or was the Clave saying the betrayal would be met with Alec’s death? Deruning? Imprisonment? Did she mean his literal life or did she mean life as he currently knew it?

If it were only Alec, he would have done it already. Jace knew that in his soul. This not knowing, the longing, everything he felt from their bond whenever Magnus Bane came up… Alec was desperate. He was afraid, yes, but he wanted to believe in this warlock who was meant for him.

But it _wasn’t_ just Alec. If he was exiled or killed, if he was torn from them, would they never see each other again? Jace knew how seriously Alec took protecting them. He was their old brother, their rock. He had done more to raise them than Maryse, Robert and Imogen combined. Losing them was maybe Alec’s worst nightmare.

It made him feel guilty. It made Izzy feel guilty as well. It made her want to reach out to Bane herself, to take that risk onto her own shoulders.

In the fight that followed, Alec had broken down. The first tears they had ever seen from him for his forbidden soulmate. Jace had thought he’d known better than Izzy about the pain Alec was in being in the dark about Magnus Bane and Izzy had thought she’d known how Alec felt because her own soulmate was probably a Mundane…

They’d been wrong.

It was a new sort of guilt that stayed their hands now.

“Besides,” Jace added when he realized he’d let the silence drag too long while he had been in his own head, “I’ve heard all the whispers about these demons. The people here are spooked, that’s why they asked for an extra team. They have four possible locations for the nest and they’re sending out four teams with two teams ready to dive in as backup? This is all overkill. Either our location isn’t the nest and we have plenty of time for a detour while things are crazy or our location _is_ the nest, we have our fun and then we take our sweet time getting back to the Institute. They’ll just think that it took us a long time to get the place cleared out.”

“So we’re good for dinner no matter how it goes.” Izzy concluded happily.

Alec quirked a small smile at them and Jace could feel how hollow it was. He was doing it to make them feel like they had comforted him, not because they’d actually done it. It infuriated Jace, how beaten down Alec felt all the time. Everyone was too hard on him.

“We’ll have fun.” Jace said again, willing Alec to believe it.

Before Alec could say anything, the New Orleans Head of Institute’s voice rang out from Ops. “All teams, gather around please!”

Izzy sighed, “Here’s hoping his pep talks are better than his mission planning.”

“Half the direction on the locations included landmarks based on cocktails.” Alec murmured under his breath as they headed towards where the teams were congregating.

Jace fought the urge to laugh as they shuffled towards the center of the room to listen to whatever this guy wanted to tell them, “It would have been helpful if I thought he had good taste in booze.”

“Alright, listen up!”

Jace stood beside Alec, trying his best to focus on whatever they were about to be told. He didn’t think they were about to be imparted any major wisdom.

He trusted his own skills, especially paired with Alec and Izzy, a hell of a lot more than he trusted the Head of the New Orleans Institute.

They were stronger together than any of these people.

**\---**

“I can’t let people die because you want more beignets Izzy,” Alec whispered.

Their sister sighed, “I know, but still.”

“We’ve been here three days, that’s short even by Clave standards.” Jace said as he crept forward in the dark. He was the first in their line, the lead in the mission, same as he always was. Izzy in the center, then Alec and his bow in the back. “They’ll want an explanation if he tries to send us away.”

“And then he’ll have to tell the Clave that he nearly gave the entire Institute the wrong info and got shown up by a teenager.” Izzy didn’t giggle but there was something darkly pleased in her voice. Pure satisfaction. He knew why. He and Izzy both loved when Alec put others in their place with facts and reason and just enough bitchiness in his voice to convey that he thought everyone around him was a waste of oxygen while still being incredibly respectful.

It was really wonderful to watch. Alec didn’t do it enough.

They got _why_. Their mother cut him down to size enough as it was, but still, he was brilliant at it.

“So we’re probably safe.” Jace summed up, “More beignets for a few days at least.”

“Focus.” Alec chastised them.

If the demons they were after weren’t so potently venomous, he and Izzy might have ignored the order. Since they were, the mission was a little more worthy than it had seemed a few hours ago so they obeyed.

Jace strained his ears, trying to catch any hint of movement towards them. He wanted to be the team that found the nest, wanted to hunt and battle with his siblings instead of getting word that another team had gotten all the fun.

The _parabatai_ bond hummed between them, expanding the range of Jace’s awareness to encompass Alec’s without thought. Joining them together into one lethal being.

When the sound of a single claw ground over pavement reached their ears, they turned as one. Izzy moved with them, used to her brothers like no other person could be.

Alec pulled the string back on his bow just a little further, ready and waiting.

The silence echoed for a second… two… three... four…

A low growl.

Alec moved before the noise had even stopped, readjusting with only the information from his ears. He shot into the darkness and they heard a yelp of pain that sounded better suited to a human child than a demon or a dog. If that yelp didn’t end in a guttural growl, they might have worried.

The arrow and the hit seemed to be the cue for the rest of the pack to step forward. Jace’s eyes took in the pack as he spun in a circle, counting as many as he could. There were at least sixteen of them. More than they’d anticipated but not a problem. They had faced worse odds before and come out triumphant.

One lunged at him and he slashed his blade towards it.

The demons were testing them. Interesting.

Another went for Izzy and then screeched when her whip lashed around its leg and pulled until a cracking noise sent it down onto the ground.

Then they all moved.

The three of them fell into formation as easily as breathing. This _was_ as easy as breathing.

Jace took out as many as he could with his blade but this was more of a battle for Alec and Izzy. The strategy was to incapacitate then kill, for safety’s sake. His blade could slice but it couldn’t really break or remove limbs unless he got the perfect opening. Izzy’s whip could. Alec’s arrows packed a bone breaking punch. A good shot to the spine did the job just fine.

So he covered them, mostly. Not his favorite role in a fight but protecting them was always worthy.

They worked like the perfect unit that they were. Alec’s arrows flew. Izzy’s whip cracked. Jace danced around the two of them, slashing and slicing and keeping back anything that would have touched them. The nest was large, but they were strong.

And then someone called out to them.

“You missed the check in, mes petits choux!”

Alec swore but none of them faltered. “Demons!” He shouted back, which really should have summed it up pretty nicely.

“Come again, yeah?”

And then the idiot came close enough to see what was happening and swore. He fumbled for his phone, the massive fool, instead of his sword.

Alec spun around and shot one of the demons heading for the distracted man, “There’s no time for calls, pull your goddamn weapon!”

Except it was obvious the guy didn’t have much on him. He finally pulled out a dagger, as if that was going to get him very far.

The three of them shared a look that lasted barely a second.

The man was still a good fifty feet away. Not so far if there weren’t demons between them but an ocean away if there was. Getting to him smoothly wasn’t going to be easy but they needed to circle around him and they needed to do it fast.

They started moving and the guy finally got with the program and at least tried to use the dagger to defend himself. As soon as this was done, Jace was ripping into him. Bad enough he didn’t trust them but to show up to ‘check on them’ with no real weapons? Like maybe if they missed the check in call then there might be a reason. A reason like _demons?_ You know, the whole fucking purpose of the mission they were all on?

He threw their rhythm off, threw their formation out of alignment. He was clumsier than them and he needed words to guide him when they hadn’t for years.

“Ten o’clock!” Izzy shouted at him, maybe just as angry as Jace.

The man moved too slowly and Alec was forced to use the end of his bow to knock the demon into Jace’s path. The demons reacted to the lack of arrows coming at them with an eagerness that was almost frightening. They could try to avoid Izzy’s bow and Jace’s blade so long as they didn’t get too close, but Alec and his arrows could get at them without proximity being an issue.

Three of them lunged for Alec all at once.

Jace felt his heart stop.

Izzy was closest but she also wasn’t looking at Alec. She couldn’t see what was coming for him. The New Orleans Shadowhunter was between him and his _parabatai_ and Jace cursed allowing that to happen.

It all happened too fast.

Jace felt the blinding pain in their rune before his eyes caught up with the reality in front of him.

Alec was on the ground, pushed flat onto his back by the ferocity of the attack. One of the three demons had a dent in its head the shape of the bottom of Alec’s fallen bow.

The other two had sunk their teeth into his brother’s flesh. 

_No!_

Jace screamed in fear and in rage.

The rest of the battle was a blur. He sliced and decapitated and would have ripped the demons apart with his bare hands if he needed to. He might have even done it and forgotten, he was covered in enough ichor to make it plausible.

And at the end, he fell to his knees at Alec’s side.

Izzy was already there. The two demons who had done this to their brother were dead and gone. A few of the demons from the beginning were still alive and letting out weak growls but they had wounded them enough that they weren’t going to move.

“Oh shit.” The Shadowhunter who had caused all of this mumbled as he stood above them. “I’ll… I’ll call…”

Alec’s eyes were fluttering shut.

“Stay awake!” Jace leaned in close and pressed his hand to Alec’s clammy cheek. He gently nudged Alec’s face to the side to make it easier to see in his eyes.

Alec’s pupils were blown wide with the pain and the poison. He couldn’t seem to focus on Jace’s face. “O-okay? Jace? Iz-zy?”

“We’re okay,” Izzy smiled through her tears, trying not to let on how scared she was. They both remembered what Alec had said and what the mission report listed about the demon’s venom. Fatality rates and survival statistics and other awful things. “And you’re going to be okay too, big brother. Just hang on.”

There wasn’t any time to waste. They needed to get him to the Institute so the Silent Brothers could be called.

Jace didn’t bother looking up at the man dialing his cell with shaking hands. “Tell them we need the Silent Brothers as quickly as possible!” He barked as he reverently slid his hands under Alec’s trembling body. “I’ve got you, Alec, it’s going to be okay. Stay with me, _parabatai_ , it’s going to be all right.”

He gathered Alec up and stood, “We’re going to be okay.” He promised

And then he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! 
> 
> Feedback is love :)


	4. Chapter Three

* * *

**Chapter Three**

* * *

Alec felt nothing.

He was lost.

It was as though he had no body at all. Just his head and his heart floating in an ocean that was made up of clouds.

Drifting away through the mist was so easy. He could just lie there and rest, he could shut his eyes and sleep a thousand years in peace.

Things like _why_ and _where_ were like whispers in the back of his mind. If he focused too hard on them, his head would ache. He remembered a fiery pain and that made him shy away from everything. It had been a pain he had never known before and he never wanted to feel it again.

Though falling that last little bit would be so easy and so lovely, two things tethered him; kept him from letting go.

His rune was muted but it was there. A constant pulse of worry that Alec forgot to remember until it flared up again and again and again. Jace. He knew it was Jace. Why was Jace so afraid? He would realize that Jace was afraid and try to focus on what was going on and then his head would ache and he would fall back again, exhausted and floating.

The other was Magnus.

Remembering Magnus.

_Wanting_ Magnus.

The one who was nothing but a name on his wrist.

He never really forgot him, he supposed. It was always there in the back of his mind. Magnus was his. He was Magnus’. They hadn’t even gotten to meet yet. How could he float away forever and not meet him?

He was trying and then he forgot to try.

Each moment he went a little further away.

When pain came for him again he flinched away from it, ready to let himself sink away again.

Then he realized it wasn’t _his_ pain. It was Jace. Jace’s worry transformed.

He focused again. Digging deep for why and where. His own pain came for him and Alec fought it. Fought for Jace.

He would always fight for Jace.

Little flashes came. An alley. A fool. Jace and Izzy terrified.

He dug in deeper.

Fire bit into him, deep and burning agony ripped at him again. Alec lost his grip. He fell.

He was lost.

Alec felt nothing.

**\---**

They let Jace draw one last _iratze_ before they shoved him and Izzy out the door.

The bond tugged at him, demanding he fix something beyond his capabilities. He would have happily done _anything_ , anything in the world to save Alec…

But he couldn’t.

He couldn’t heal this, not himself.

“He’s going to be okay.” Izzy said faintly and there was a lack of conviction in her voice that chilled Jace. There were tears rolling down her pale, frightened face and they shamed him.

“He _will_.” Jace insisted. Sitting felt wrong but he dropped down into the chair beside Izzy and pulled her into a hug. If he couldn’t help Alec, he was going to take care of her.

She clung to him and he could feel tears wet the shoulder of his shirt, “That fucking idiot. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t of shown up.”

They still hadn’t gotten his name. He had all but dematerialized after they had gotten Alec back to the Institute. The first smart thing he had done so far.

What Izzy said was true and Jace would find him later and make him pay for what he’d done to Alec but right now he couldn’t leave. He was only a room away from his _parabatai_ now and it was still too far.

“Did you call Mom?” Jace asked quietly.

Izzy nodded against him, “They’ll be here when they can.”

He knew what that meant. They’d be here when all the more important stuff was done. It had stopped hurting a long time ago except it sort of hadn’t.

How long had it been since the door had closed in their faces? An hour? Two? Everything had happened too fast to keep track of time and the second the door had closed time had almost stopped. It felt like a year since he had laid Alec on the Infirmary bed and started drawing runes again. His _parabatai_ had been unconscious. It hurt that he wouldn’t wake up but Jace knew it was better. The pain had to be terrible. He could feel it through their bond, a weakened echo of what Alec was feeling and even that was agony.

Each minute went by as though it were an hour. He and Izzy stayed curled up together. He was trying to support her even while his heart was pounding out of his chest in fear and she was doing the same.

They weren’t meant to be only two. They were always, _always_ , meant to be three.

Except, maybe, when they would become six.

When the door finally opened Jace and Izzy were on their feet before the Silent Brother even glided out. He only paused in front of them for a second before the voice came into their minds.

_It is up to him._

And then he started walking away.

“What does that mean?” Jace reached to grab him and pull him back. It wasn’t _done_ , touching a Silent Brother, but he didn’t care.

“It means that there’s nothing else we can do.”

Jace whirled around to find one of the New Orleans medics standing in the doorway with a sympathetic expression on his face. He didn’t know his name, they rarely bothered to even ask anymore since they met so many people so rapidly, and never did he think when they arrived in this Angel-forsaken Institute that he would need to have any real conversation with the Infirmary staff.

His jaw clenched and he had to pull in a deep breath before he could even speak, “I don’t understand.”

“The poison is too widespread.” The man said as he glanced between Jace and Izzy. He was older, clearly experienced. There was gray threading through his brown hair. The idea that this man might actually know what he was doing had been comforting before but now it truly wasn’t. He had to be _wrong_. “He has to fight himself but… I’m so sorry, I don’t think he’ll make it through the night. We’ll do whatever we can to keep him comfortable until the end.”

_Until the end_.

The words echoed in Jace’s ears.

This mission had been _nothing_. This mission was _not_ enough to take down Jace’s _parabatai_. It wasn’t.

Izzy staggered back, practically falling onto Jace, “Can’t we call a warlock? Just because runes can’t heal him doesn’t mean that magic couldn’t!”

The medic looked truly uncomfortable, “We asked. The Clave has denied the request. They don’t normally, I’m not sure…” He trailed off awkwardly.

He didn’t know, but Jace did. 

It was because of Magnus Bane. Because of Alec’s soulmate.

The Clave would rather let Alec die than risk letting Magnus Bane get close to him.

The silence rang between them.

“Come sit with him.” The man offered, like he could have kept them away for much longer. “He’ll be comforted to hear your voices.”

Jace rushed forward and the man had the sense to step out of the way quickly.

The Infirmary was empty expect for a curtained off bed in the corner. Alec’s bed. The curtain was probably for privacy, probably meant as a mercy towards him and Izzy, but the sight of it was another piece of Jace’s broken heart as this got more and more real.

Though he ran to get there, the second he pulled back the curtain he froze. Izzy’s steps came running behind him and he heard her trembling gasp as they both took in the sight of Alec.

_He was so pale_.

The thin, paper white look of his skin made him look fragile in a way that Jace never associated with his strong _parabatai_. The bed and the machines swamped him, making him look small even though he had shot up taller than Jace in the last year. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and the two nearly overlapping bite wounds were livid red. Blackened veins trailed out from the center of it, spreading into his side and across his chest. There weren’t any bandages over the wound, probably for treatment or something, but all it did was make Alec look…

_No_.

“Jace,” Izzy whispered, “Jace, what are we going to do?”

He stepped forward and didn’t answer her. He couldn’t speak, not yet.

When he reached Alec’s side he took his brother’s hand into his own. Alec’s skin was radiating heat, the poison doing its work. The contrast of his too pale skin, his darkened veins and the angry, bloody rip in his body was horrifying.

The bond was screaming.

Jace’s _soul_ was screaming.

Alec was dying.

“We have to _do something.”_ Izzy insisted again.

What could they do? The Silent Brothers couldn’t heal him. Their runes couldn’t heal him. The Clave refused to allow a warlock.

“There are other warlocks. It doesn’t have to be Magnus Bane that comes here and heals him. Why can’t they call someone else?” Izzy demanded like Jace was the one making this heinous decision.

“They won’t risk it.” Jace answered even though she already knew. “They won’t risk _him_ finding out. They won’t risk giving him anything to use against them. It’s supposed to be a secret anyway. If they call in a warlock and it gets back to him or someone here spills… they won’t risk it, Izzy, not even to save Alec’s life.”

Jace turned Alec’s hand in his, tilting his wrist up to the light. The leather of his cuff was scuffed, too old and worn. Lots of people covered their soulmate’s names because of the intimacy of it or out of shyness. Alec did it because their mother demanded the name underneath be hidden from everyone.

Wordlessly, Jace unsnapped the metal holding the bracelet in place. 

_Magnus Bane_

They had researched Alec’s soulmate for years. _Years_. Quietly, in Clave databases and out. They asked around. They slipped away to Shadow World shops that had records of him.

The answers they got were never clear.

Hedonistic but kind.

Brutal but merciful.

Flippant but wise.

Alec had never felt comfortable reaching out. He didn’t know what he would find.

But he wanted to. All three of them knew how desperately he wanted to.

A hundred little moments flashed in front of Jace’s eyes.

**\---**

_Alec was ten and Jace was nine. They were in the London Institute. It was a place they came so often that sometimes Jace could sort of pretend that it was home._

_They were alone but not really. Never alone, not when the three of them were together. But Maryse and Robert had left them here by themselves and though they had all promised to be good and on task, even though the Head of Institute here was a stern woman who said she was watching them…_

_They were alone._

_No Maryse to frown and make Alec feel small. No Robert pushing them towards the training room if they tried to talk to him._

_Just them._

_“I have to show you something.” Alec had whispered to him._

_As soon as there weren’t prying eyes on them, they slipped away. The person training them now was working with Izzy. They were supposed to be working on their hand to hand combat. They were supposed to be always training._

_It was never Alec that wanted to go play when they weren’t supposed to. It was always Alec holding Jace and Izzy back, making them do the right thing. If they didn’t obey, it was Alec who got the punishment._

_Jace’s mind spun with the possibilities of what Alec wanted to show him. A secret passageway? A hidden door into the weapons room? A way out that no one else was watching?_

_When Alec led him back to their room, Jace was kind of disappointed._

_Then he caught sight of Alec’s face and that disappointment vanished. This was important. Alec looked like he was maybe going to puke._

_The door shut behind them and then Alec whirled around to face him, his fingers already on the clasp of the leather bracelet that covered the name on his wrist._

_Jace’s breath caught._

_They were never never never supposed to take them off. Never where someone else could see. Jace hadn’t seen the names on his siblings’ wrists in years, not since they were little kids. Sometimes he tried to remember what their names looked like, but he hadn’t been able to read the last time he’d seen it so it was hard._

_Jace said nothing as Alec undid the snap. What his brother wanted – what his future parabatai wanted, if Jace got his way – trumped what their parents wanted, what his grandmother wanted. Alec came before the rules._

_When Alec offered Jace his bare wrist, it took a few seconds to register what he was seeing._

**_Magnus Bane._ **

_“I don’t know anyone named Magnus.” Jace whispered. They were alone but whispering still felt necessary._

_Alec made a noise that was kind of strangled. He shoved his wrist closer to Jace, as if he wasn’t reading it right but he knew he…_

_Oh._

_“Bane. That means your soulmate is a…”_

_“Warlock.” Alec finished._

_Jace looked up at him and didn’t know what to say._

_This made so much sense. Why they ran. Why they hid. Why their mother was so mad when anyone talked about soulmates around them._

_Alec saw the realization on Jace’s face and the strangled look sort of faded. He pulled his wrist back and held his arm against his chest. He looked down at the name and Jace felt his heart break for his brother._

_He looked sad and scared and hopeful and defensive and…_

_“I don’t care.” Alec whispered down at the name on his skin. “If he doesn’t care what I am, I don’t care what he is.”_

**_\---_ **

_“Why would you ever think that warlock would want you?” Maryse spat._

_Alec flinched. He had stood there stoic during her entire rant about his leather cuff being damaged during their hunt last night – hands behind his back, eyes down – until she said that. Alec had said one tiny thing in defense of himself. That_ he _was okay with people seeing the name. Izzy had stiffened the second the words were out of his mouth and Jace had felt a rush of dread. That had changed the rant. It went from railing against carelessness to_ this _. To Maryse ripping Alec’s hopes to pieces._

_For a second, Maryse stopped._

_Jace watched her stare at Alec. Watched her read everything off his face._

_She came closer and put her hands on his shoulders and waited until he looked up at her._

_“Alec, you have to grow up. I’m not saying this to hurt you.” Except she was. No one could say these things to someone and not know they were causing pain. “Magnus Bane is four hundred years old, he’s been with thousands of lovers, he’s travelled to Edom and back, he runs nightclubs for fun, there’s no luxury or indulgence he hasn’t reveled in. He has no honor, no loyalty to anything that isn’t pleasure. He would be interested in you for a week at best, get what he wanted and then cast you off like you were nothing because to a warlock like him, you’re worthless. What would he want with a Shadowhunter? A Shadowhunter who knows his duty, who has a calling that goes beyond just having a good time, who is responsible and hard-working?”_

_A year ago, Alec wouldn’t have said a thing. He would have stood there and let her break his heart like that. He wouldn’t have tried to defend this warlock that none of them knew._

_“He’s hard-working too.” Alec’s throat was so tight Jace wasn’t sure if he was even hearing him right. “He invented portals and all sorts of wards stuff. Even the Clave said he’s brilliant.”_

_Maryse looked like she pitied Alec. It was worse than anger. Worse than her pretending to be kind._

_“You’re right.” Maryse nodded like she was being fair admitting it, “He has done a lot of truly amazing things in his life. After all his centuries doing amazing things with amazing people - ”_

_Alec flinched again. The way her voice twisted those words…_

_She didn’t just mean working with amazing people or something. She meant so much more._

_“Why do you think he’d have any interest in a thirteen year old Shadowhunter who hasn’t even slain a demon alone let alone accomplished anything of note?”_

_And then, Maryse walked away._

_She didn’t shut the door behind her. Izzy had to run and go do it before the tears started trailing down Alec’s face._

_Jace gripped his brother’s shoulder, replacing their mother’s touch with his own. “Don’t listen to her, Alec.”_

_“Why shouldn’t I?” Alec asked, his voice so small, “She’s not wrong.”_

**_\---_ **

_Today was the first time Jace had been alone with Imogen in nearly two years._

_She barely came to see him anymore. The last time was an accident six months ago. They just happened to be in the same Institute at the same time. She had been startled to see him. They had talked for a few minutes but then work called and she was gone again._

_Jace had thought that today would be more of the same. She wanted to watch him train. He had sort of expected her to watch for ten minutes, give him that proud nod and then leave to talk to the Head of Institute about the mission they had been on last night._

_She didn’t._

_She brought him into an office she had set up shop in because Imogen Herondale needed to be able to work at a moment’s notice no matter where she was, what she was doing or how long it had been since she had spoken to her only grandson._

_And now, Jace was sitting in front of her desk, listening to words he couldn’t bear to hear._

_Arranged marriage. Suitable match._

_“I have a suitable match,” Jace interrupted her, “Her name is Clarissa.”_

_His grandmother stopped and stared at him, “I don’t know where Clarissa Fairchild is but I do now she’s not going to be found, Jace. You need to accept that.”_

_Jace felt those words like a punch to the gut. “Yes, she will.”_

_“The Herondale and Lightwood families are old and important, Jace, we cannot leave the bloodline to chance.”_

_“Lightwoods?” Jace asked, like a fool. He felt like one. He felt like no one was making any sense anymore._

_His grandmother’s eyes went harder, less gentle for Alec than for Jace. He hadn’t ever really warmed to him, even advising Jace against becoming his parabatai. She couldn’t forbid it, it went against the Angels’ laws, but she had made her disapproval clear. “Of course Alec and Isabelle will need suitable matches as well.”_

_“What are you talking about?” The urge to get up and pace was so painfully strong. “Okay, yeah, we don’t know where Clarissa is. Or Simon. But we know where Magnus Bane is.”_

_“Don’t be naïve, Jace.” Imogen nearly barked. “Magnus Bane would dirty your parabatai inside of a week and then throw him to the curb without a care. Is that what you want? If Alec meets him, his entire life is forfeit.”_

_Jace went cold._

_“What does that mean?”_

_He hadn’t meant to throw a little threat into his voice. He hadn’t meant to nearly growl at his own grandmother. He didn’t mean to lean in and glare._

_But it happened anyway._

_Imogen sighed, “Perhaps we should discuss this another day. You’re still too young for rational decisions.”_

_Jace stood and braced his hands on the desk, “What did that mean?”_

_Imogen stood too and she met his eyes without backing down, “Pray you never have to find out. If you want to protect Alec then make sure that he and Magnus Bane never lay eyes on each other.”_

**_\---_ **

_Jace had snuck out yesterday to find this place. Izzy had helped but she hadn’t gone too. Not when Robert was actually here in the same Institute as them. He barely paid Alec and Jace any mind at all. It was Izzy and Max that he actually paid any attention to, if they were in front of him to remind him they existed at least._

_So Izzy provided the cover to get Jace out for an hour. And he had searched the streets, trying to find the address he needed. He was getting better at slipping through the Clave databases without setting off any alarms, but he had still been half convinced that when he found this place Maryse would be standing outside glaring._

_She hadn’t been. The werewolf who ran the store thought he was weird as fuck but she didn’t throw him out and she didn’t glare when he showed back up that night at two in the morning with his siblings in tow._

_All she said was, “Do not get ichor or blood on my merchandise.”_

_“We won’t, we promise!” Izzy said cheerily._

_An actual, legitimate Downworld-run but not warlock-run bookstore._

_Jace had been working towards this for so long. Finding them was difficult. Finding them and keeping their interest a secret from, well, **everyone** , was even harder. Finding them and having to wait until they were in that particular city again and then slipping away during a patrol to actually go inside?_

_Near impossible… and yet, here they were._

_“If we stand still too long, they’ll notice.” Izzy said quietly. “So give me your phones and I’ll go wander around.”_

_“Absolutely not.” Alec said sternly._

_“Just down the street!” Izzy said as Jace slipped Alec’s phone out of his coat pocket while he was focused on their sister and added it to his own before giving them to her, “Jace is going to show you what he found then he’s going to join me. We’ll circle the block a couple of times and come back for you but we can give you ten, maybe fifteen minutes, okay?”_

_Alec was still glaring. It didn’t seem like he’d really caught on to what this was. Breaking the rules always got him so jumpy._

_Izzy just patted his cheek and said, “Let yourself have this, Alec.” Before she rushed out of the store and started walking slowly past the windows out front._

_Jace didn’t waste time. He couldn’t. They had been planning this for a while, testing boundaries and expanding them as best they could. How many times had they been called over these last bunch of months because Izzy ducked into a store to drool over a pair of boots or something? She had always talked their minders out of anger or suspicion. They were kids, young even by Clave standards. She wanted to look, just for a minute, just for five minutes. The tight leash loosened, ever so slightly. Some Institutes even stopped calling, as long as they came back on time. Maybe they weren’t watching, maybe they pitied them, maybe they were just incompetent._

_It didn’t matter. They would take whatever they could get._

_Jace pulled down the book from the shelves and flipped through the pages as Alec finally quieted beside him._

_Finally, he understood._

_The book wasn’t huge. It was something that some random warlock had written as a comprehensive history on some dimension of Edom. Magnus Bane had been to that dimension._

_Thus, Magnus Bane earned a chapter._

_A chapter with a picture._

_When Jace offered the book to Alec, his brother hadn’t been breathing._

_“This is him.” Jace whispered. He dared not say soulmate in earshot of the warlock._

_Alec took the book with shaking hands._

_His eyes traced over the photo with so much emotion in them it was nearly Jace that was in tears._

_“I’m going to Izzy now,” Jace laid it all out for his stunned brother. “I read over the chapter, it’s mostly theoretical stuff about his work getting to the dimension in Edom that this whole book is about, but the next page is a bio on him that you can read. Not the Clave one obviously. We’ll give you at least ten minutes, okay?”_

_Alec said nothing. Jace hadn’t expected him to._

_He walked away and left Alec with the picture._

_The Clave databases were so bare. It was on purpose. They left the bad things and the truly notable things. The smallest amount of information they could actually get away with putting down._

_No pictures._

_They kept Alec from even the tiniest piece of his soulmate._

_So Jace gave it to him instead._

_The first time he was ever seeing his own soulmate’s face._

**_\---_ **

_“Don’t even stand there and lie to me, Alec! You want to meet him!”_

_Izzy looked so frustrated she might explode._

_Alec_ didn’t _look frustrated, which only made Izzy’s grow. He ignored her, he ignored Jace. Instead, he just worked on packing his bag as if he had a lot of stuff and didn’t have three hours until the portal would open up for them to bring them to their next assignment._

_“Alec, answer me.”_

_“We’re not doing this, Isabelle.” Alec said coldly._

_“You’re eighteen, Alec!” Izzy reminded needlessly. “You don’t have to follow Mom’s rules anymore.”_

_Alec just stared at her, “The Clave’s rules don’t go away even if Mom’s do.”_

_“He’s your soulmate! They can’t forbid you from seeing him, the Angels say so!” Izzy said, exasperated._

_“They might not be able to forbid me, but they can punish me.” Alec answered._

_Izzy threw her hands up, “It’s against the Angels’ laws!_

_Their brother raised an eyebrow and even Jace winced. “You’re not stupid, Izzy, so stop acting like it. They can punish me for anything they want. Maybe they’d never say it was for reaching out to my soulmate but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t find another way to punish me for it.”_

_That knocked Izzy down a peg. Alec wasn’t wrong and she knew it._

_“You wouldn’t risk punishment for him?” Izzy asked quietly._

_“Be **quiet** , Izzy.” Alec said through grit teeth. _

_Izzy was not quiet. “I don’t even know where Simon is, Jace doesn’t know if Clarissa even exists anymore, but we know exactly where Magnus is! You could try. You could talk to him. You cou- ”_

_“Stop it, Izzy! Just stop!” Alec shouted. Izzy shut her mouth abruptly. Alec never yelled. Never. “Yeah, I don’t have to do what Mom and Dad say anymore, yeah, I would be willing to risk my life for him… but I won’t risk you and Jace and Max.” His voice cracked and something in it made Jace ache for him. It was them, it was always them that held Alec back. “I won’t… what if I run away and I throw my family, my career, my life away…” He stopped and looked away “And I get to him and he doesn’t want me? What if they’re all right? What if...”_

_Alec dropped down onto the bed and stared at nothing, like he couldn’t even look at Izzy anymore. “I can’t… please just stop.”_

_And Izzy did. Here, finally, she stopped._

_“I’m sorry.” Izzy whispered as she sat hesitantly beside him. She didn’t touch him. In that moment, it seemed like neither of them could, even if they laid their hands on him. It felt like Alec was a million miles away. In New York, maybe. In the city that he had been born in and had never returned to. In the city his forbidden soulmate lived in._

_None of them said anything else. What was there to say?_

_Alec could risk everything for Magnus…_

_And Magnus might not want him._

_Where would Alec be left then?_

**_\---_ **

He stared at the name. When he finally tore his eyes away, Izzy was standing across the bed from him and her eyes were locked on the black mark too. She looked up at him and they both knew what they were going to do.

Jace knew what he _had_ to do.

He squeezed Alec’s hand and leaned in close to his ear, “Hang on, Alec. Don’t you dare give up on me. I’m going to bring your Magnus and he’s going to fix this. Just hang on until I get back. _You can’t go without me.”_ And he pressed a kiss to Alec’s forehead before he let his hand go and turned away.

There wasn’t any time to linger or turn back. There wasn’t any time to argue with anyone else.

No one stopped him. A few people whispered and he knew then that the whole Institute, this entire mess of horrible people, knew that his _parabatai_ was dying and no one was going to try to do anything about it.

Jace walked straight out the door of the Institute into the night. Then he started running. Let them think he was upset or afraid. Let them think he was some stupid kid running away from his problems. Hell, let them think he was a coward like them. Their own cowardice and whatever paltry sympathy they had for him kept them inside. No one came after him but Jace ran anyway.

He waited until he was out of sight of the cameras and then he started screaming.

“I need a warlock!”

There were only drunk Mundanes around him and he was still glamoured from the mission. They couldn’t see him. Not one of them turned to look at the boy with black tattoos screaming into the night.

Someone _would_ hear him though.

If Bane had them watched, if the warlocks in New Orleans took pictures of Alec when they thought they weren’t being noticed…

Someone had to be watching now.

Someone had to hear him.

_“I need a warlock! I need Magnus Bane!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your support for this story, I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me!!


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